Kim was baptized Sunday with her husband. Her testimony danced across the church as she told how some women who came to where she served coffee invited her to a Bible study, and she began her journey to faith. Her husband told how she had dragged him to church, and he too met the Lord. They glowed with joy.

I closed my eyes and remembered back two years ago to my friend Kayla bouncing into exercise group and telling me that Kim had come to Bible study for the first time the day before. Kayla is a born-evangelist kind of global worker who just loves people into the kingdom. She was more than excited.

“Oh, Liz,” Kayla said as she pumped the machine beside me, “Kim was so much fun yesterday. First she plopped down beside me with her new lesson book and said, ‘Holy s***! This book jumps all over the Bible! How do you find stuff?’”

“I can say that to you,” Kayla laughed, “but I have to be careful who I say that to because they would be shocked that I said it, but it was so funny, because that’s just where she is! And then after study she asked me if we could go to the bookstore so she could buy a Bible. She has a paperback New Living but she wanted to get a Bible that would match the workbook. I was hoping to find something that wasn’t too expensive but all the ones they had in large print were $59.99. But Kim said, ‘Kayla, it’s OK. This is going to be my very own Bible.’ And all the way up to the counter she was hugging it against her and saying, ‘Kayla, I never had a good Bible before that was mine. This is going to last me the rest of my life.’ And then we went to my house and sat outside for three hours and she asked questions. She asks the BEST questions!” (You have to know Kayla to get the full impact of this conversation, because she is half Italian and cannot talk unless her hands are moving—fast.)

I heard more about Kim from two other women in the exercise/Bible-study group when we got to coffee. They are both new to the Bible study, and they may not be believers yet. They are probably the two women in the group who are the hardest for me to appreciate. Camile talks money non-stop, and Dora mostly gripes about her husband. They have made me part of the group, however, and are very warm. So I sat down at coffee beside Camile and she said, “You should have seen this woman who came to Bible study yesterday—you know that Kim who works here sometimes?”

I said that I did, but I did not tell her what Kayla had said.

“Well, you should have seen what she wore. Hot pink short-shorts, and a tank top with NO bra. I simply did not know where to look!”

Then Dora chimed in, “I mean, isn’t there a dress code or something?”

I said probably not, but maybe, after a while, she might notice that others were not dressed quite that way.

Camile said, “Oh, I don’t think she even noticed.”

And now, I wonder what Mary Magdalene wore the first time she went to meet Jesus?

About the author

Anna McShane* directs an English program and lectures at a large public university in China. Over four decades with SEND International www.send.org, she traveled as a journalist in all of SEND’s 20 areas. She can also be found speaking to women’s conferences and sharing her life with college students. In addition to writing for THRIVE, you can find her at:
www.themissionsblog.org/author/anna-mcshane/ and www.whileiwasgoing.blogspot.com
*for security reasons, this is not her actual name.